Chicago @ Baltimore preview
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Last Meeting ( Aug 7, 2010 ) Chi. White Sox 4, Baltimore 2
With the Minnesota Twins right on their heels, the Chicago White Sox look to post a second straight victory over the suddenly competitive Baltimore Orioles on Sunday at Camden Yards.
Baltimore won the series opener Friday, its fourth straight win under new manager Buck Showalter. Chicago rallied on Saturday for a 4-2 victory, scoring a run each in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
The White Sox have a 1 ½-game lead over the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central. Chicago is 7-3 in its last 10, but is just 8-12 against AL East foes this season.
Chicago got a strong start from Gavin Floyd on Saturday and trots out Mark Buehrle on Sunday.
Buehrle (10-8, 4.05 ERA) is 7-2 in his last 10 starts and has gone at least seven innings in six of those outing, lasting less than six innings just once. Buehrle has a decent history against the Orioles, posting a 5-3 record and an ERA of 2.72 in 14 games, including 12 starts.
Baltimore started the Showalter era with a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels and now looks like it will be a thorn in the side of any contending team it plays down the stretch.
It's a small sample, but it is quite a turnaround from the rest of the season. The Orioles still have the worst record in baseball but were an abysmal 18-33 at home before Showalter was brought on board.
While Baltimore is only 7-15 against the AL Central, bad, it’s not nearly as bad as its record against the loaded AL East (10-35), which looks likely to send two teams to the postseason.
The Orioles, who will still ring up their 13th consecutive losing season, had their four-game win streak snapped with Saturday's loss. The surge was tied for their longest win streak of the season and they look to start a new one today behind Jeremy Guthrie.
Guthrie (5-11, 4.21 ERA) has won two of his last three starts and he allowed only one run in the other, a 5-0 loss to Toronto. Before his recent run, Guthrie was 0-4 in seven starts.
Guthrie has not allowed more than three runs in any of his last four starts and will need to be just as sharp if he wants to improve on his history against the White Sox. In eight games - six starts - against Chicago, the former first-round pick out of Stanford is 2-3 with a 4.38 ERA.